Reviewed By	Matthew (MaFt) Morley
Review Date	21st September 2011
Manufacturer	Bracketron
Provided By	Mobile Fun
RRP	£19.95 inc VAT
9

Sticky stuff seems to be in fashion at the moment, particularly when it comes to mounting solutions. Darren recently reviewed the Exomount which uses a sticky pad in conjunction with a traditional rubber sucker to attach the mount to pretty much any surface.

Bracketron, with their MobileDock, use the sticky pad at the other end of the mount - to hold onto the device itself. While officially designed, and sold, as a mobile phone holder I quickly saw the potential for this to hold a range of SatNav devices too. So I thought I’d give it a try to see how universal it really was.

This is actually the first vent-mount I have ever used and so I was interested in just how sturdy it would be. It was easy to fit, with spring-loaded adjustable arms that hook around the fins in the air vent. There is also another protrusion that serves to rest lower down the air vent to provide extra support. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually very sturdy. Removing it was equally easy. This is aided by the fact that if you are struggling to fit your fingers in you can remove the arms from the rest of the mount to make it easier to manipulate.

The main mounting area reminds me of the Star Trek logo with the green sticky blob in the middle and two supports that stick out about half an inch to provide extra support for the phone. The green blob is very sticky - it is actually pretty difficult to remove the protective cover from it! The main back plate is attached to the mount itself using a lockable ball and socket joint. Once you have it at the desired angle you just tighten the bolt and it’s locked in place very effectively.

So, how well does it function? Very well actually! It is designed, primarily, for phones and it holds these very well. Simply press the phone against the sticky pad when you want to mount it then peel it off when you are finished. The pad is actually sticky enough to not need the extra supports at the bottom. During testing I never had one suicide leap from a phone. Upon removing, there is no sticky residue on the device although you may have to give it a quick polish as the area that was attached will be cleaner than the rest!

My old iPod Video, the hard drive making it considerably heavier than a phone, was held in place with no problems - even when I raised it up so it wasn’t resting on the supports. I also tried a few SatNavs as well - some faired better than others. The only real issues I had were with the TomTom 520 and the Garmin Nuvi 360. With the TomTom 520 the sticky pad ended up being almost where the indent is for the TomTom mount to attach and so it couldn’t actually make contact with much of the surface - it did hold but was prone to falling off over bumps. The Nuvi 360 wouldn’t stick as the sticky pad was located at the indent made by the flip-out aerial.

Other SatNavs that passed the test were the Garmins Nuvi 200 and Nuvi 3790. The TomTom Via Live (with and without the integrated suction mount) and the Mio Spirit 687 also stuck without issues. It also works as a good mount for a Kindle (although you wouldn’t drive with one in place, you could prop it up while waiting for the wife to max out your credit card...!). It was strong enough to hold an iPad too although because the back support is not big enough and the sticky blob is so low down on the device I certainly would not recommend it as an in-car mount for the iPad!

The sticky blob will inevitably get fluffed up and lose it’s stickiness but, as the printing on the blob itself says, simply rinse it with water and give it a quick wipe to get the stickiness back.

The only downside I can see, and it’s only very minor, is that the plastic can sometimes feel a bit flimsy - it is only really noticeable when you’ve pressed your phone on too hard and you hold the back plate to make it easier to prise the phone off. Nothing really worth worrying about.

The mount is very easy to install and move between vehicles and the total lack of any ‘arms’ makes it truly universal as you are not limited to only using smaller devices such as phones and there is very little that can be in the way of any power leads. For less than £20 this would be a very useful mount with a lot of possibilities.

The review sample was kindly provided by mobile phone accessory specialists, Mobile Fun.

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